The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twin Hells, by John N. Reynolds

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Title: The Twin Hells

Author: John N. Reynolds

Posting Date: September 17, 2008 [EBook #1318]
Release Date: May, 1997

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWIN HELLS ***

Produced by Charles Keller

THE TWIN HELLS

A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries

By John N. Reynolds

ATCHISON, KANSAS.

TO MY DEAR OLD MOTHER
AND
TO THE MEMORY OF MY SAINTED WIFE
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE

The following pages treat of hell--A Kansas hell and a Missouri hell.
Those who desire to peruse works that tell about Heaven only, are urged
to drop this book and run. I was an inmate of the Kansas penitentiary
for sixteen months, and make mention of what came under my own
observation in connection with what I experienced. While an inmate of
this prison I occupied cells at various times with convicts who had
served terms in the Missouri prison. From these persons I gathered much
useful material for my book. After my release I visited the Missouri
penitentiary, and verified the statements of those criminals, and
gathered additional material from the prison records and the officials.
I have written chiefly for the youth of the country, but all ages will
be deeply interested in the following pages. A large majority of the
convicts are young men from sixteen to twenty-five years of age. They
had no idea of the terrible sufferings of a convict life, or they surely
would have resisted temptation and kept out of crime. The following
pages will impart to the reader some idea of what he may expect to
endure in case he becomes entangled in the meshes of the law, and is
compelled to do service for the State without any remuneration. Every
penitentiary is a veritable hell. Deprive a person of his liberty,
punish and maltreat him, and you fill his life with misery akin to those
who wander in the darkness of "eternal night," I think, when the reader
has perused the following pages, he